Threats to global growth are rising as the US-driven trade shock crushes confidence and slams financial markets, according to research for the Financial Times ahead of key meetings of economic policymakers in Washington this week.
Confidence indicators have slumped sharply while financial market conditions have deteriorated, according to the Brookings-FT Tracking Indexes for the Global Economic Recovery, or Tiger. The deterioration in the global outlook is a marked contrast to the relatively firm start to the year.
Eswar Prasad, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said it would be “premature” to forecast a worldwide recession but warned that the breakdown of global trade and higher policy uncertainty would markedly suppress growth.